Memory is within and at the very heart and center of creation, and goes before it in all of its manifestations.

Memory is primal to our exis¬tence.

Memo¬ry is everywhere within the body and soul, not just in one place.

It is an exquisite tapestry of many colorful threads; some of which we share with all of humanity, and some which are personal to us. Carl Jung referred to those that are a shared inheritance as the Collective Consciousness, and described them in terms of archetypes. These interact with our own prenatal and perinatal memories, as well as those of our early child¬hood to become the matrix of the consciousness that drives us in body, mind, and soul and the personalities we thereby become. In seeking the causes of our felt sense of separation from source, which injures our own sense of personal identity, as well as our ability to relate to others, we need to look to the quality of memories in our soul.

There is a profound connection between memory and consciousness and “Who and Where is God in WHY we ARE the WAY we ARE?”

In so many ways GOD has been hijacked, captured, and imprisoned by religion(s). In a word, GOD has been “made-over” by mankind and this make-over has become an important, if not also a central, part of humanity’s history. None of us can escape being influenced and directed by the cultural and religious beliefs of our parents and ancestors, so if we put memory and consciousness into the context of the cultures and religions into which we are born, allegiances to which the majority of humankind carry with them throughout their lives, then, it has EVERYTHING to do with the way we are.

So, let us take a look at how this works.

Religion and culture are closely intertwined and although the boundaries between them are blurred, nevertheless each wields power and control over its constituents in similar ways. They do so by assignments of status to selected individuals and groups, thus conferring authority and privilege on some and withholding it from others. These hierarchies and aristocracies of power direct and monitor beliefs about all manner of subjects, thereby dictating, if not actually controlling the thoughts, feelings, reactions, and behavior of their constituencies. These religious and cultural beliefs and the behavioral responses they evoke have evolved over millennia; They have been, and continue to be, passed as memories of belief and ritual from generation to generation, thus dictating individual and collective behavior at each point in time. As such they are major players in problems that currently divide the world, solutions to which will not be found until we fully understand their origins. Only then will we be able to apply appropriate remedies using and inculcating the themes that are at the heart and center of ALL religions; LOVE, COMPASSION, JUSTICE, EQUALITY, RESPECT for others, and the sister and brotherhoods that flow from our shared heritage as children of the same GOD.

If these be the intent of religion and its high ideals then what took place to dim and change it, leaving religion as a divisive rather than a cohesive force that can bring peace to the hearts and souls of all?

Wisdom cautions that if we do not learn from history we will be bound to repeat it. If this be so then let us take a brief journey backwards into the blood letting of history. What we find is that most wars and other atrocities have been fought over differences of religion and the cultural beliefs and practices they engender. In all instances the scenario is similar. The protagonists believe that the religion they espouse and all that goes with it is the only true religion, thus making all others false and their adherents infidels. Once this belief takes root in the collective consciousness of one group or another, it automatically confers permission to shun, injure, and even kill in the name of GOD and for the sake of GOD those they consider to be blasphemous in their beliefs simply because they are different. In fact, as Elaine Pagels points out in her book, The Origin of Satan, the early Christians shamelessly made out their opponents to be the devil. The Crusades of the Middle Ages are an example of the long-term violence and bloodshed that can result from these passionately held and, most often, mindless beliefs. That memories of these experiences and events dwell within the collective consciousness and play a role in collective human behavior cannot be denied. Twentieth century eruptions of ethnic, religious, and internecine wars and the unspeakable brutalities opposing sides inflict on each other confirms it is still a powerful operative in the affairs of humankind.

Yet humankind yearns for this to change.

It takes only a moment of reflection to realize that it is inconceivable that the GOD from whom flows the divine tenets for human behavior in all religions could or would take sides in such conflicts, let alone sanction them. But alas history is replete with instances where armies arrayed for battle against others because of differences in religious belief have been blessed and spurred on to VICTORY for GOD by their religious leaders. This mind set has also fed missionary zeal and in the many denominations of Christianity, themselves the result of differences in what should be believed and how it should be practiced, has given rise to a numbers game, each faction trying to out do the others in terms of the numbers of converts to their way, as if this itself conferred legitimacy on their way, being THE WAY.